I started this site to answer questions that friends and family have asked about my motorcycling interests. In particular "why," in my late 50's, I'm still on the track. To racers and trackday riders much of this site will seem simplistic. The "what" of this hobby is as much as I can convey. The "why" will be as elusive or as obvious as it is to those who know or who are avid runners, rock climbers, sport anglers, ballroom dancers, crossword junkies...

I started riding in 1968 along with a whole country discovering there was as much fun in 50cc as in 1200cc. With nearly a million other people that year I bought a (small) bike and peeked over the handlebars into a new heaven and a new hell. The highlights are here, more tales to follow...

I could write volumes about what goes on inside during a good ride. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes it as the "experience of flow" (Wikipedia entry). Flow experience is the best description I have found to describe "what" in mortorcycling is so magical whether it is commuting, touring, trackdays or competitive racing. For me, on the track where the only traffic is a like-minded racer, is where flow happens.

A 100 mile ride on flowing country roads with decent pavement or a 3,000 mile trek can be equally satisfying. The ease and frequency of the former balances the planned undertaking and less frequent intervals of the latter. The first long motorcycling tour for both of us, and the most recent, were our honeymoon and our 30th anniversary reprise of that trip. That's the only tour we've descriobed here, but more reminisces (and new trips) will follow.

I am embarassed by my odometer. My daily commute is six miles each way, and in ten seasons of 7-8 months riding and moderate touring, the odo is at just 39,000 miles. Among the beemer crowd ("beemers" have two wheels, "bimmers," four) you'll find folk who've ridden 200,000 miles in that time - on the same machine. Worse still, the odo is the roll-over type (not an LCD) - with those few novice miles on display for all other beemer-ites to see.